How Chris Paradox got his first 1,000 students in 30 days on Udemy

Since publishing on Udemy, I changed my business strategy. I already offered a course on my site, and it went well. But I saw limitations with that. Udemy has all the funding and technology, and it makes sense to use Udemy’s platform rather than reinvent the wheel and do it myself.

Chris Paradox left his six-figure salary at a corporate job to find his life’s purpose. He started this journey living under a tree in a London park and distributing the paper. Afterwards, Chris joined a circus and lost his leg in a diving accident. Fast forward, and Chris Paradox is now an inspirational poet and speaker helping others find their life’s purpose. He teaches The Art of Meaning: Make Your Life Matter which now has over 1,200 students enrolled and 31 5-star reviews.

Before Chris Paradox published his course, he decided, “I want 1,000 students in my first month.” He applied the precise thinking he teaches in his course to help him enroll his first 1,000 students within 30 days of publishing on Udemy.

On Getting His First 1,000 Students

I reached out to individuals in my network who have similar audiences.I asked them to: 1) Email their groups with the link and 2) Share across their social media channels. I did a unique coupon code for each affiliate so I could see who brought in the most enrollments.

Pro Tip: Provide a limited number of free coupons to a relevant partners to email their audiences and test the interest level.Whichever partner has the most relative enrollments, run a follow-up limited time paid email campaign. Also, remember that audiences who are less familiar with you are less likely to pay full price for your course, so don’t shy away from a limited time free or discounted coupon.

Chris Paradox regularly performs and speaks at live events.

Pro Tip: If you do paid speaking events, whether it’s a small meetup or huge conference, provide a free or discounted coupon for your course as part of your speaking engagement ticket. You can also guest lecture and invite students to join your course throughout your presentation, like Hitesh Choudhary.

Everyday was, ‘Who do I promote my course to today? Who should I send coupons to now? On the last day, I was at 870 [students enrolled], and I just went for it.”

Sure enough, Chris Paradox achieved his goal of 1,000 students within his first month of publishing on Udemy.

I recognized an amazing opportunity to reach a much wider audience. I liked Udemy’s emphasis on high production value. The course checklist really forced me to do a good course. Your checklist was a great guide.

Now that I’ve discovered Udemy, all of my content will go into courses. In a one-off workshop, people are inspired but go away and forget and life gets in the way. I like courses because they’re similar to coaching. When I found Udemy, I thought: This is perfect.

I hope to be one of Udemy’s top earners and reach $200K-$300K. I give myself 3 years to do this.

If you’re ready to find your first or next 1,000 students, follow through with the strategies above. And here are a couple additional resources: